Fred Wilson wrote two articles in the last few days about globalization and its effect on the Internet. When Union Square Ventures raised its most recent fund, Fred told investors
“The Internet is getting more global, more mobile, more social, more intelligent, and more playful.”
These are many of the same sentiments Workstreamer was built to support. Our Macro thesis is essentially that work is changing: it’s increasingly project based with talent and opportunities dispersed globally. Workstreamer is meant to be a platform to facilitate the connections, collaboration and ultimately the marketplace we expect to evolve from this new world.
Apparently Fred has some quantitative data to support his case! The following are numbers for total Internet audience by location:
Worldwide – 853mm (up 10% from 772mm last year)
North America – 185mm (up 4% from 178mm last year)
Europe – 240mm (up 8% from 223mm last year)
Asia – 323mm (up 14% from 283mm last year)
Latin America – 63mm (up 19% from 53mm last year)
Middle East/Africa – 43mm (up 23% from 35mm last year)
In a second post by Fred called upon some collective intelligence – asking for someone to find a chart of revenue per user by location. Fred assumes that the United States would represent ~80% of the total revenue. However, Fred also said that he and his fellow venture friends see this figure as rapidly changing. As such they are in the process of allocating resources to internet-based ventures in emerging, or more non-traditional Internet markets. In fact, Fred has spent the last month in Europe exploring opportunities there.
It’s a very difficult balance trying to invest on a longer time horizon. Fred is looking to invest in a still-developing future while also retaining current rates of return. We agree with the USV strategy and look forward to keeping an eye on what he does.